Topic 1 Practical Ideas
Topic 1 Practical Ideas
Topic 1 doesn't lend itself to many practical activities but there are some simple introductory activities and simple labs which you could try. I have categorised these labs and activities per subtopic. You could also try some of the first day ideas and environmental scrap book activities.
An Introduction: What do I know?
As I start the course, I like to have students show that they are engaging in environmental issues. This is crucial to success in the course and engagement throughout the course. It's also a great way...
Environmental Scrap Book
Keeping up with the news about the environment is an important part of this course. Students entering class and telling you about the latest piece of news or idea they have heard about is one of the potential...
First Day Ideas
This is an exciting time with your fresh faced and non IB weary new recruits. This is also a precious and important part of the course where you can really hook in the students with up to date, relevant...
1.1 Who am I? Developing my EVS
This is a great start to the course. It helps you get to know your students and build relationships while having them think about their relationship to the environment and the factors that contribute...
1.1 Evaluating 3 Environmental Issues
I use this activity as an introduction to thinking about Environmental Value Systems. Many environmental problems can be approached with different lenses, i.e. environmental value systems. In fact...
1.2 A Local System
Another early activity is to identify a local ecosystem which you can highlight to the students as a system. In a previous school we lived near a lake which could be walked around in one hour and so we...
1.2 Burning Candle as a System
Burning Candles A candle can be used as a simple introductory lab to have students think about variable identification and how they might use a candle as a system.We approached this as a class activity...
1.2 Measuring Change in an Emerging System
This lab is adapted from the original idea of Adrian Palmer while at SJI International School, Singapore. Adrian is now based at Bangkok Patana School, Thailand. It requires you be organised and have...
1.4 Environmental Indicators
I first came across the idea of using and devising environmental indicators from the AP Environmental Science textbook I used by Friedland and Relyea. I explored the concepts and found that cities were...
1.5 Pollutant Identification and Measurement
Introducing pollution measurement can simply mean introducing different types of probes and showing students how to use them. I have our lab assistant make up various samples of water with different contaminants...
1.5 and 4.4 Oil Spill Clean Ups
I've had a student work on an ambitious extended essay to investigate the metabolism of oil by bacteria that are naturally occurring. You can now buy kits that demonstrate this action.Oil spills are big...